Maruti Suzuki India limited will shortly launch the LPG variant of the car that put India on wheels, the 800. The car christened ‘800 Duo’ will be launched sometime next week and will cost Rs. 20,000 more than the normal petrol variant.

The move is one last ditch effort by Maruti to arrest declining sales of its one time bread and butter car. The 800 sales have dwindled in the last few year while other maruti models like Alto has gained from this slide. The imminent launch of Tata Nano’s later this year is also being seen as one of the reasons for Maruti to come up with LPG version.

Maruti already offers LPG variants of Wagon-R and Omni van in the market. The 800’s LPG kit will work on integrated gas mixer technology. The power and torque numbers have taken a hit marginally with maximum power of 35 ps @ 5000 rpm and torque 56 nm @ 2500 rpm. The car is a environmentalists delight and emits 10% lower carbon dioxide than the petrol variant.

Maruti hopes to double the sales of the 800 with the launch of the LPG variant. Currently LPG variants constitute around 23 percent of nation-wide sales for WagonR and Omni.